When we arrived we had to go through entry formalities which meant us going to 3 different offices with a variety of licences and papers to obtain out cruising permit and immigration stamps. Amazon were ahead of us slightly so luckily they gave us the heads up on what to do. First impressions – lots of paperwork but quite structured and efficient.

Next, whilst preparing to leave the customs quay our hard earned Vignette (licence) that we'd paid €300 for fluttered away and landed in the dock. I made a mad dash for out boathook, quickly attached it's fishing net head and in the nick of time saved it as it slowly sank towards the bottom. Nearly a very embarrasing and diffucult to explain disaster.

Given the weather the only real choice of mooring around Dubrovnik was the city marina, situated up river. We'd originally intended to make land at another port slightly south called Cavtat and then work our way to Dubrovnik via a couple of anchorages, but we'd diverted to Dubrovnik earlier to avoid the line of storms and bad weather. The landscape is vastly different from Italy, with huge steep sided inlets almost like fjords. It looks a bit like the welsh mountains, but with palm trees, the sea and civilisation. We motored up one such long inlet under a huge suspension bridge (another first for us) and eventually arrived at the marina only to find a large queue of other yachts milling around with the marina not letting anyone in until after 4pm.

So, we waited, called and tried to get any information we could about berths. Typically the marina staff were very non-commital about availability of spaces, so upon their recommendation we anchored for a short while to wait with the intention of catching up on some much needed sleep after last night's sail. Feeling we were loosing opportinities to other boats that just motored straight up to the marina, we decided to forgo sleep again to be a but pushy and join the fray. After much circling and hovering around we were finally allocated a berth.

Since we're flying back to the UK for a week from next Wednesday, we need to leave the boat in the marina and they don't take reservations. Since we're in and at a berth we won't be able to go out exploring without risking not being able to get back in again, so we've got a few days to relax a bit and explore.

We're both very tired after a busy and restless night, so have crashed out with some quick and easy pasta and are now heading off to a nice unbroken 8 hours sleep.

Adrian – the Geek

I guess I'm the geek! I try to make the best use of technology whenever possible and try to keep up to date with the latest tech both on and off the water. I'll be writing reviews, news and stories about the boat, equipment and our sailing.

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Jax – the Girl

Though it may be a life on the ocean wave for me, I don’t see that I need to be unglamorous or forego all nice things. For me it’s about finding a way to incorporate a bit of style in our lives alongside all of the necessary practicality and technology - and to try to keep the geekery under control ;-)

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Where are we?

Click to locate usWe are currently in the Caribbean, having crossed the Atlantic with the ARC in December 2014. We are working our way north during the Caribbean season towards Florida, where we'll start heading up the east coast of the US during the summer. View our satellite trackers and other locator beacons to follow our progress, see where we are and send us SMS messages via satellite.